Rebel MPs' minority report over abortion change is rare form of dissent

Last updated at 23:24 30 October 2007

It is very rare for members of select committees to register their dissent so publicly through minority reports.

Last year, the Labour-dominated Education Select Committee slammed Tony Blair's schools reforms, but Tory members produced a separate report backing the Government.

In 2004, the Home Affairs Committee was split over the Government's plans for ID cards.

The rebels on the Science and Technoloigy Committee object to the main report "cherry-picking" evidence and research surrounding abortion.

This includes a study of UK hospitals which found that babies born at 22 and 23 weeks had a survival rate of just one and 11 per cent respectively, as proof that there was no case to lower the upper time limit on grounds of viability.

Miss Dorries contests that the study was invalid because it included hospitals without neo-natal units, thereby radically reducing the likelihood of the survival of premature babies.

Some campaigners want the abortion limit to be cut to the European average of 13 weeks.

Others, including include Professor Stuart Campbell, whose 4D images show a 12-week foetus apparently sucking its thumb, believes the limit should be 20 weeks.

Miss Dorries said her concerns focused on disputed evidence surrounding the capacity of a baby to survive independently outside its mother's womb and the time at which a foetus can feel pain.

The rebels produced their minority report as they felt the inquiry had failed to give enough note of scientific arguments in favour of lowering the 24-week upper limit.

It will be attached to the final report as "Appendix One" and is bound to cause huge embarrassment.